Right this is the thread where I'm left to my own devices rather than just copy and pasting THFC6061s work.... We play Fiorentina on Thursday so what do we know about them? They're from Italy which is in Europe, I believe. Batistuta. It's my favourite topping at Pizza Express although they always forget to leave off the olives so I end up having to take them out myself. This means that we're in for a tough game against an Italian side so we'll have to be patient and pick them off like unwanted olives on the counter. Also Batistuta. I haven't watched them since the Football Italia days so I've no idea whether they're as good anymore but they do have Salah and he's always been a handful when he plays against us. They Played for Both... Paolo Tramezzani(probably, I haven't fact checked) Paul Stewart Created by @Yid Vicious
Current Fiorentina players that people will know: Micah Richards. On loan from City and I think his contract's up in the summer, IIRC. Milan Badelj. One of the many young Croatian midfielders who we were linked with in recent years. Joined Hamburg, then Fiorentina, instead. David Pizarro. Old, experienced, loaned to City for 5 minutes and is Chilean. Alberto Gilardino. Also old, experienced and played a lot in Italy. Famous for a comedy dive v Celtic. Alberto Aquilani. Flopped horribly at Liverpool, though he inevitably played well against us as we were robbed at Anfield, again. Stefan Savic. Joined City from Partizan, played poorly and was shipped out after a season, despite his youth. Joaquin. Old Spanish winger, best known for his exploits with Valencia. Alessandro Diamanti. Spent some time at the Spam, missing out on Hammer of the Year to Scott Parker. Borja Valero. Ex-West Brom midfielder, doing a runner back to Spain when they were relegated. Giuseppe Rossi. Another one that was linked with us. Plagued by injury problems. Man Utd and Newcastle both had him on their books. Marcos Alonso. Spanish left-back who has played for Bolton and Sunderland. Mario Gomez. German striker who scores a lot. Mounir El Hamdaoui. Signed for us from Excelsior in Holland, but never played. Loaned then sold, due to our large number of good strikers. Mohammed Salah. Chelsea loanee. Caused us tons of problems when playing for Basel in 2012/13. Quite a bloody list, actually. How many of them will play is debatable. Large squad with a fair bit of quality, but lots of injury issues.
I don't think Diamanti is in their Europa League squad. Don't know how he's playing these days but he always looked a handful when I saw him. Gilardino had a terrific start to his career scoring about 20 league goals in a season but then struggled at the big clubs. Good for goals but if he doesn't score he's useless, much like Darren Bent really. Gomez is another but he was always very good at leading the line and scored bucket loads. Not scoring so much anymore according to Wikipedia. Could be a real experience vs youth tie if we field the side we've been using a lot lately.
What predictions do we have for our line-up. I'd keep most of the West Ham/League Cup team fresh so Vorm Chiriches Fazio Kaboul Davies Stambouli Paulinho Townsend Soldado Dembele Adebayor And tell them they are playing for a place in the CoC squad. And, injuries permitting, that they are playing in both legs. On the assumption that the team for West Ham is Lloris Walker Dier Vertonghen Rose Mason Bentaleb Lamela Eriksen Chadli Kane
One more tricky team choice. The question is how much you write off Fiorentina and the Europa to keep the team as fresh as possible in the League Cup, not to mention West Ham. I might play a mostly first team this week, and an almost exclusively second team next week. SD, it’s interesting you think we’ll drop Dembele vs. West Ham. The merits of Eriksen Dembele Lamela vs. Chadli Eriksen Townsend are very debatable.
Dembele has been good recently, but I would definitely want Chadli for the final, and so have worked back from that. Would also want Eriksen in the centre and that means Moussa misses out for me.
I am making my annual trip to the Lane on Thursday bringing my Spurs supporting sons to the match, it's their 2nd footballing outing of the week, the 3 of us having been to see the Gills v MK Dons on Saturday, so I hope they bring you the same luck on Thursday. From my own selfish point of view I hope to see Eriksen, Kane and Lamela in your team.
Fazio won't be ''needed'' against WHU. Carroll is out so they won't be playing high balls to him all game.
I'm totally against that, to be honest. For me it has to be first choice against Fiorentina, the only changes I'd consider are Davies, Chadli and Townsend who I think are all very close to being first choice. Vorm's an interesting one though, I think Pochettino said he's our 'keeper for League Cup(and FA Cup) games so will play the final and would probably need a game or 2 before then. I'd prefer it if we just gave him the away leg though.
Florentina are a very good team...they will be very difficult to beat over 2 legs imo. I think we should go with a strong team and by no means should Ade start... or Kaboul...neither are good enough for this game. I would play Dier or vertongen with Fazio in the centre of defence with soldado upfront with either Chadli or Lamela in place of Ade. Am going with my eldest daughter so am hoping for a good game and result COYS
I think we could play pretty much a full strength side against both Fiorentina and West Ham but then for the away leg at Fiorentina, take a reserve team, allowing the first team to then have a week's rest and preparation for the Chelsea match. I'd only consider putting Vorm in for the Europa game and then a tough choice between Rose or Davies and Dembele or Chadli to see who gets the nod in either game. Vorm Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose/ Davies Mason, Bentaleb Lamela, Dembele/ Chadli, Eriksen Kane The list of players PNP mentioned shows Fiorentina are no joke and so I think it'd be too risky to play a complete reserve team in both games.
OK, seems I am alone in my team of choice for Thursday. I just think we should target the cup final we are in and do everything we can to give Chelsea a game. Everything is in their favour - down to them having the CL tonight rather than next week. Our best bet for CL is via the league, so I would also favour the West Ham game over the Fiorentina one. And, Kaboul apart, I think my team is still a strong one, that will give them a game.
The winners automatically qualifying for the CL means you can't go in there with too weak a team anymore. Some on here might even argue that the Europa League now takes precedence over both FA and League Cups
The strongest team possible must be selected because the next match in all competitions must be treated as a priority. We don't know if we will win the Capital or if we will make top four as we can't see the future so to sacrifice one in the HOPE we'll do better in the next is a mug's mind set. We have to go all out for the EL as it's the next competition.
There's no proving who's right SD...I'm just hoping we continue to play well and that we ain't used all our luck up yet!
I'd go very close to full strength on Thursday, 1st XI against West Ham and then the bare minimum taken out to Italy for the return leg ahead of the cup final.
It certainly takes precedent over tha FA Cup because they're both at a similar stage but the prize is much greater for the Europa League. I think a cup final is more important though and we have a much greater chance of winning it.
